Safety mine car latch assembly



17, 1954 H. J. HARBULAK SAFETY MINE CAR LATCH ASSEMBLY Filed June 27, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR MmRvJ. l/A

Aug. '17, 1954 H. J. HARBULAK 2,686,478

SAFETY MINE CAR LATCH ASSEMBLY Filed June 27, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR HARPYJ H RBULAK Patented Aug. 17, 1954 SAFETY MINE CAR LATCH ASSEMBLY Harry J. Harbulak, Huntington, W. Va., assignor to ACF Industries, Incorporated, a corporation of New Jersey Application June 27, 1951, Serial No. 233,730

12 Claims. 1

This invention relates to latches in general and in particular to latches for use on drop bottom mine or other industrial cars.

Drop bottom mine and industrial cars have for years been built with latches mounted on the end walls and having arms projecting laterally from the side of the car for contact with a track side ramp. These latch arms in certain installations are bent and damaged, so that the car either dumps prematurely or cannot be dumped when it reaches the pit. Recently cars have been built having latches and operating means carried in aprotected position and requiring some track side means reaching into the protected area to trip the latches. Such arrangements have required accurate alignment and timing between the track side equipment and the car. It is an object therefore of the present invention to provide a safety latch which can be tripped without having track side equipment projecting into a protected area of the car.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a safety latch having operating parts normally projecting beyond the clearance limits of the car, but which cannot be tripped accidently.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a latch tripping mechanism including two leverage systems connected in series and requiring actuation of two parts simultaneously to trip the latch.

A yet further object of the invention is the provision of a drop bottom mine car having a latch tripping mechanism comprising a tripping part and a conditioning part which must be operated simultaneously to trip the latch and release the drop.

These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art from a study of the following description and accompanying drawings, in which Fig. l is a side view of one end of the car with portions broken away to better disclose the construction;

Fig. 2 is an end view also with portions broken away;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the improved tripping mechanism; and

Fig. 4 is a side view of the improved tripping mechanism.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, it will be seen that the car body is of generally conventional form, being supported on wheels W running on rails R, the wheels in turn supporting side sills 2 and end sills 4 carrying bumpers 6.

The side sills and end sills constitute a frame to which is attached the end sheets 8 and side or slope sheets ID. The bottom space between the frame members is adapted to be closed by doors 12, which preferably swing down about a transverse axis, that is, an axis substantially parallel to the axles on which the car is supported. The rearmost door, particularly as shown in Fig. 2, is provided with a lug [4 adapted to rest on a ledge of hook l6, pivoted as at l8, to a housing 20 carried by the end sill and end sheet. The hook or latch is held in its forward or locked position by means of a compression spring 22 hearing at one end on a clevice 24 and at the other end on a stop 26 welded or otherwise secured to the end sill structure. Pull link 28 is pin connected, as at 38, to hook l6, and passes through an opening in stop 26 and has an adjustable connection to clevice 32, which rests upon the stop 26 to limit the engaging motion of hook it. Clevice 32 is pin connected, as at 34, to the lower end of bell crank 36. The intermediate portion of this bell crank is pin connected, as at 38, to upstanding cars 46 welded or otherwise secured to the end sill structure. The outer end of the bell crank is pin connected, as at 42, to a push rod 44 extending vertically downward alongside the vertical leg of the side sill 2. The lower end of this push rod is pin connected, as at 46, to a pair of bars having their intermediate portion spread, as at 48, to receive a tripping roller T rotatably mounted on connecting pin rivet 50.. The other ends of the bars are pin connected, as at 52, between spaced bars 54. These spaced bars are suitably connected together and have an intermediate portion pivoted, as at 56, to the side sill structure and to a housing member 51 welded or otherwise secured to the side sill and forming a box section completely housing the tripping mechanism. The opposite or forward ends of bars 54 are provided with a pin 58 upon which is rotatably mounted a conditioning roller 0. As clearly shown in the figures, the lower outstanding flange of the side sill is notched, as at 59 and 60, to permit passage of rollers T and C respectively. A leaf spring or other resilient means 62 is fastened to the side sill and bears upon the rearward end of bars 54 normally holding these bars in a raised position, as shown in full line of Fig. 1 and by line and dash of Fig. 4.

From the preceding it will be seen that the tripping mechanism is formed with a first leverage system formed by bars 48 and a shiftable fulcrum point 52, and this leverage system is connected in series with another leverage sys- 3 tem formed by bars 54 and the fixed fulcrum 56. In other words, two leverage systems are connected together in series, one being a first class system, and the other being a third class system having its fulcrum shiftable and conditioned by the first class system. Due to this connection of the leverage it is possible to have the conditioning roller C serve as a crushing roller which will prevent accidental tripping of the latches unless it is positively held in a raised position. For

example, with the leverage shown, it will require approximately 960 pounds of pressure on roller T. to trip the latch, but in order to hold conditioning roller in a raised position will require in excess of 3360 pounds. This is sufficient to normally crush any lump of coal which might tend to trip the latch mechanism.

In order to trip the mechanism at the desired point, a track side equipment is provided and may take the form of an elongated fiat-topped ramp having its ends bevelled, as at 12, and providing internally with spring centering lugs adapted to receive springs 14 bearing on an I beam 16 pivotally carried by rod i8 mounted on the track side structure. As clearly shown in Fig. 2, the sides of ramp F0 are turned inwardly, as at 80, so as to ositively limit the upward motion of ramp 10. When in proper adjustment the ramp 1!) will just barely touch the bottom flange of side sill 2, but can be depressed by 10- comotive or other structure passing thereover. This ramp will be of sufiicient length as to span the space between rollers T and C with suincient excess length as to permit disengagement of hook is and lug M during movement of the car in a tripping direction.

The operation of the device is as follows, assuming the parts to be in the full line or normal position of Fig. 1. In this normal position tripping roller T is held above the bottom of the side sill and accordingly cannot contact any track side obstruction during movement of the car. This is accomplished by spring E2 which also holds the conditioning roller C in a position projecting below the bottom of the sill and always in a position to contact any obstruction that projects into the zone of the sill. As the car would move through the means, any lump of coal that might strike roller C would push the same upwardly, but this could have no tripping action since it would merely lower fulcrum 52 of the second leverage system and bring roller T into the full line position shown in Fig. 4. If by some accident there is also a lump of coal beneath roller T, then there would be a tripping tendency, but before the latch could be tripped, the roller C would tend to crush any normal lump of coal, since the resistance at roller C has to be approximately four times the resistance at roller 'I. When the car approaches the tripping position, that is, as it moves from left to right of Fig. l, roller C will be moved upwardly to the line and dot position, bringing the fulcrum 52 downwardly and causing the roller T to move into the full line position of Fig. 4. Further forward movement of the car will cause the roller '1 to be moved to the full line position of Fig. 1, thus causing the rings 48 to move upwardly about fulcrum 52 and cause the tripping of the latch through the push rod 44 and the remainder of the mechanism connected to the hook. Further forward motion of the car will cause roller C to move 01f the ramp and immediately drop to the full line position shown in Fig. l, which is the normal position, and the mechanism is new con- 4 ditioned for latching when the doors reach the closing ramp customarily placed in the pit. From the preceding it will be seen that neither roller T nor C can of itself cause tripping of the latch, but both must be positively held or moved to their raised position to trip the latches. It will also be seen that no track side equipment need project into any protected area of the car, and accordingly no special timing or reconstruction at the dumping pit is required. While the invention has been described more or less in detail with specific reference to one form, it is obvious that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced pivotally connected trip levers adjacent one of the side sills arranged for vertical swinging movement in the vertical plane of the side sill, pivot means for one of the levers carried by a side sill member, and means connecting the other trip lever and hook part for joint operation.

2. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook art mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced pivotally connected trip levers adjacent one of the side sills arranged for vertical swinging movement in the vertical plane of the side sill, pivot means for one of the trip levers carried by a side sill member, and means connecting the other trip lever and hook part for joint operation, each of said trip levers having a portion thereof movable below the lower edge of said side sill members.

3. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced trip levers pivotally mounted adjacent one of the side sills for vertical swinging movement in the vertical plane of the side sill, and means connecting said trip levers and hook part for joint operation, said pair of trip levers being pivotally connected together in end to end relation and one only being pivotally connected to the adjacent side sill.

4. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced trip levers pivotally mounted adjacent one of the side sills for vertical swinging movement in the vertical plane of the side sill, and means connecting said trip levers and hook part for joint operation, said pair of trip levers being pivotally connected to each other and one at least to the car so as to require simultaneous vertical swinging movement of each lever about its fulcrum point to effect release of said hook part from the door.

5. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced trip levers pivotally mounted adjacent one of the side sills for vertical swinging movement in the vertical plane of the side sill, and means connecting said trip levers and hook part for joint operation, said pair of trip levers comprising a hook tripping lever free of direct connection to the car and a conditioning lever pivotally connected to the car and to the hook tripping lever.

6. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced trip levers pivotally mounted adjacent one of the side sills for vertical swinging movement in the vertical plane of the side sill, and means connecting said trip levers and hook part for joint operation, said pair of trip levers comprising a first class lever pivoted to the car and having an end portion normally projecting below the lower surface of the adjacent side sill, and a third class lever pivotally connected to said first class lever remote from the projecting end position and to the latch assembly and having an intermediate portion normally carried above the lower surface of the adjacent side sill.

'7. The structure of claim 6 characterized in that said end and intermediate portion are equipped with anti-friction means.

8. The structure of claim 6 characterized in that the pivotal connection between said first and third class levers forms the fulcrum point for said third class lever controllable by said first class lever.

9. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced trip levers pivotally mounted adjacent one of the side sills for vertical swinging movement in the vertical plane of the side sill, and means connecting said trip levers and hook part for joint operation, one of said trip levers having a fulcrum point fixed with respect tothe car and the other trip lever having a fulcrum point shiftable with respect to the car and under control of said one trip lever.

10. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced tripping means for the hook part, one of said levers having a fulcrum member carried by a side sill member and means connecting said pair of means and hook part for joint operation.

11. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by the car, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced tripping means for the hook part, and means connecting said pair of means and hook part for joint operation, at least one of said tripping means having a fulcrum carried by a side sill member and projecting below the lower portion of the adjacent side sill at all times except when said hook is moved to released position.

12. In a drop bottom mine car having load supporting side sill members joined by end sills, a drop bottom door hingedly carried by thecar, a latch assembly carried by the car and including a hook part mounted adjacent an end sill and normally engaging the door to retain the same in raised position and movable to release the door for opening, a pair of longitudinally spaced tripping means for the hook part, and means connecting said pair of means and hook part for joint operation, one of said tripping means having a fulcrum carried by a side sill member and normally projecting below the lower portion of the adjacent side sill and the other tripping means being normally carried above the lower portion thereof and being urged downwardly upon upward movement of said one tripping means.

Name Date Pancake Oct. 12, 1948 Number 

